Eastern Railroad Discussion > Awaiting the Harvest on an ex-ICRR Branch

I don’t know who Jones was and why a switch on the old Peoria, Decatur & Evansville was named after him.

I just know that for as long as I can remember there has been a grain elevator southeast of my hometown of Mattoon, Ill., at a place called Jones Switch.

Today Interstate 57 goes practically over the top of Jones Switch. The PD&E, which was acquired by the Illinois Central Railroad early in the 20th century is mostly gone east of Jones switch.

A portion of the PD&E remains in place from the Canadian National yard in Mattoon – what’s left of it anyway – out to the Cargill grain elevator at Jones Switch.

Traffic on this spur probably is sporadic. A week or more might go by without any trains moving over these tracks.

I left in Mattoon since 1983 and don’t get back there much so I don’t know how often that trains operate on this line.

I do know that the last two times that I saw Jones switch there was a string of covered hopper cars parked to the west and an IC caboose wearing the IC “death star” logo was being used as a shoving platform for CN crews backing the hoppers out to the elevator.

As far as I know, the occasional move of covered hoppers is the only traffic still left on this segment of the old PD&E.

There are countless locations such as Jones Switch scattered all over America. A branch line or a portion of a branch line remains in place to serve a particular customer or two that needs rail service.

The distance between the Mattoon yard and Jones Switch is a couple miles or so and the track is not in the best condition.

I have to wonder how much longer that CN will agree to move covered hoppers over this stretch without some track rehabilitation.

Whatever the case, I made it a point to visit Jones Switch last month during a visit back to Mattoon this past August to do some railfanning of the former IC.

The caboose I had seen two years earlier on these tracks was there along with a string of covered hoppers.

The elevator owns or leases an SD7 painted solid blue that has had its markings and numbers removed. A little research yielded the information that it was built in May 1952 as Great Northern No. 559 and later was Burlington Northern No. 6009. The diesel was silent and I didn’t observe any activity at the grain elevator.

The only sounds came from traffic rushing by on the interstate and the wind rustling the corn plants next to the tracks. Some of that grain might move over these very tracks in a couple more months.

But the corn was still quite green and would need more than a month to mature and be ready for harvest.
So everything waits for its time. The caboose, the covered hoppers and the blue geep will soon enough have work to do.

(Photos 1 and 2) An ex-IC caboose still wearing the "Deathstar" logo sits idle as a string of covered hoppers (Photo 3) await their call to duty.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/14 04:57 by SDP40F600.

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(Photos 4, 5 and 6): The SD7 used by Cargill at Jones is biding its time.

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(Photo 7): The hopper cars and grain elevator as seen in this distant view.

(Photo 8): Need a new tractor? It was sitting along the road near the tracks.

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The most poetic narrative I've ever read on TO. Nicely done.

Like so many others, that caboose looks horrible and I know it costs some money, but paint is cheap compared to the bad publicity this caboose brings to the railroad.

Thank you for the great report. I enjoy visiting locations like this too.

For those following along at home, the SD-7 was originally built for the Great Northern: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locopicture.aspx?id=42382

As an unrebuilt SD-7, its quite rare. For me, part of the joy of seeking out elevators is finding old locomotives and cars like this that aren't well known.